VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:31:55 03/12/01 Mon
Author: Anonymous
Subject: News and Issues

Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:




46 Date: 2001-02-15 12:20:23
Dutch (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Is Indian tribal sovereignty outmoded?

By Martin Paskind
For the Journal
American Bar Assn. Journal, in its March issue, features six articles about Native Americans and the law. In New Mexico, of course, we have many Native Americans and Indian communities.
Gambling means those communities now are among the state's wealthier and more powerful.
The six native Americans who contributed articles to the ABA project add little to understanding. They stick with the tried-and-true litany of Native American complaints, which have much to do with tribal sovereignty.
Doreen Yellow Bird, for example, writes that there are too few Native American lawyers, perhaps only 2,000 among the 925,000 attorneys in the United States. These "legal warriors," she says, are needed to protect the "unique sovereign status" of the tribes and the interests of their people.

LACKEYS: Russell Means disagrees. Means is an Oglala Sioux, a longtime activist, leader of the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee, S.D., and now a Santa Fean. He's locked in judicial combat with the Navajo Nation over its courts' power to hear misdemeanor assault charges against him.
Means says: "One cannot have sovereignty by permission, and it's time the tribal governments look in the mirror and realize that they're nothing more than lackeys for the continued exploitation of my people."
If you agree with Means, you don't need anything like 2,000 Native American lawyers because you don't need Indian tribes or sovereignty at all. Means notwithstanding, tribes and sovereignty aren't likely to go away. That leaves lots of questions.

LACKEYS NEED JOBS, TOO: Sovereignty is important to tribal officers and council members, some of whom earn livings from administration and the judicial system. It can be important to innumerable lawyers hired by councils to pursue gambling deals and land claims. Otherwise, Means may be right. Tribal "lackeys" don't need sovereignty.
Once upon a time, tribal sovereignty, no doubt, meant something. White people needed someone to sign treaties and do business. Less cynically, sovereignty carved out an area of Native American life free of white intrusion.
Today, however, tribal sovereignty does relatively little to protect Native American communities from whites. It protects Indian governments from their own people.
Tribal councils rarely issue annual reports. Try, as a businessman, to find out about finances. Newspapers don't cover tribal councils. Only councillors, and sometimes but not always their lawyers, know what's going on.

DIFFERENT STROKES: Conditions aren't uniform. The Navajo Nation is relatively transparent to its own members and outsiders. Other tribes aren't. This is true even though gambling tribes handle millions of dollars. Other tribes, such as the Mescalero Apaches, accumulated wealth through oil, gas and timber.
By and large, members are equally as ignorant of tribal business as non-Indians.
If tribal sovereignty is in decay, perhaps Native American governments are to blame. They assure that Indians know as little as possible and participate to the smallest extent in reservation affairs.
In ABA articles, neither Yellow Bird nor her colleagues get around to just what sovereignty ought to do now. They believe judicial power should be greater, and that more non-Indian offenders ought to be tried in tribal courts.

MAKING PEACE: Some tribal courts, such as those of the Navajos, whose jurisdiction Means attacks, are well-established and reliable.
In America's litigious society, the Indian emphasis on peace-making looks like progress.
Smaller tribes lack formal courts. The tribal council handles disputes, as it handles just about everything else, and councils often handle business in language not understood anywhere or by anyone off the reservation.
Suzan Shown Harjo, an ABA writer and Cheyenne-Muscogee, complains that Native Americans still "struggle to obtain basic human rights and recognition."
She's right. Anglos and Hispanics have a long and bad history of mistreating Native American people. Sometimes, the reverse was true.
Still, the civil rights commitment of today's tribes is not inspirational. As residents thrown off of pueblo lands learn, the First Amendment doesn't protect religious minorities from tribal governments. Nor does the Bill of Rights limit powers of Native American governments. Tribes can discriminate as they please.
Perhaps those seeking Native American equality will look to transparency in tribal governments, purposes of sovereignty, fairness of judicial systems and respect for their own and the civil rights of others. If they won't, perhaps Means is right.
"If we are citizens of the United States," says Means, "we should be judged as such and should no longer be judged by an apartheid system. In the final analysis, it just shows you that tribal governments are obsolete."
Unless Native Americans, themselves, make something more of sovereignty than a system for running casinos, perhaps Means is right. Maybe Native Americans are business people -- to be taxed, sued, and given the same opportunities as the rest of us.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


45 Date: 2001-02-15 12:06:21
Dutch (no email / no homepage) wrote:

The FBI has dressed its online wolf in sheep's
> clothing, changing the name
> of its controversial e-mail surveillance system,
> known to this point as
> Carnivore.
>
> Carnivore now goes by the less beastly moniker of
> DCS1000, drawn from the
> work it does as a "digital collection system." The
> investigative agency
> built the tool to monitor the Internet
> communications of suspects under its
> surveillance, but the system, housed on computers at
> Internet service
> providers, also can collect e-mail messages from
> people who are not part of
> an FBI probe.
>
> A spokesman for the FBI denied that the name change
> stemmed from worries
> that the name Carnivore made the system sound like a
> predatory device made
> to invade people's privacy. But the Illinois
> Institute of Technology, which
> last fall issued an analysis of the system at the
> request of the Justice
> Department, recommended that the name be changed for
> just that reason,
> according to an IIT analyst.
>
> "We had a concern that it wasn't a good name for the
> system," said the IIT's
> Larry Reynolds. The group thought the name should be
> dumped, he said,
> "because of the very definition of the word."
>
> The name change is the latest development in the
> controversy surrounding the
> surveillance tool, which came under public scrutiny
> last summer when privacy
> advocates began to decry it. In September, the
> Justice Department picked the
> IIT Research Institute to perform a
> government-sponsored technical review of
> the software.
>
> The rechristening is part of an upgrade that
> incorporates other
> recommendations from the research group, according
> to Paul Bresson, a
> spokesman for the FBI. "It isn't because we were
> worried about negative
> privacy publicity. If it was, we would have changed
> (the name) months ago,"
> he said. "This (system) is not something that
> remains static."
>
> The upgrade was supposed to be coordinated with a
> Justice Department report
> on DCS1000 scheduled for release prior to Janet
> Reno's departure last month
> as attorney general, Bresson said. He did not say
> when that report will be
> made public.
>


44 Date: 2001-02-14 18:53:57
Dutch (oldman_dutch@yahoo.com / no homepage) wrote:


Tribal history update planned
By ROB MARTINDALE World Senior Writer
2/14/01

The Cherokees want to showcase aspects of their history after the "Trail of Tears."
TAHLEQUAH -- Cherokee scholars came to their tribal nation's capital Tuesday to help start the planning process for a permanent exhibit to highlight the tribe's history since the 1830s "Trail of Tears."
"The post-Trail of Tears era is a phenomenal story of achievement, suppression and rebuilding," said Cherokee historian Rennard Strickland, dean of the School of Law at the University of Oregon.

When the Cherokees arrived in Indian Territory in 1838-39 at the end of the Trail of Tears they had suffered from losing at least a third of their population and all of their possessions, Strickland said.

Although strangers in their new country, the tribe within only 15 years had moved into what historians called "The Golden Age of the Cherokees."

The Cherokees, Strickland noted, constructed the male and female seminary, the first collegiate-level institution by any Indian tribe, and moved into a sound agriculture-based economy.

These and other stories, plus the names of Cherokee leaders and those tribal members who gained national reputations, could be made a part of the permanent exhibit.

"It's not just for the Cherokee Nation. It is for all of Oklahoma," said Rayna Green, Native American Indian Studies director for the Smithsonian Institution, who came from Washington.

Green designed a Trail of Tears exhibit for the Smithsonian. She has done extensive research on what Cherokee artifacts are available through the Smithsonian, other museums and in private collections.

The exhibit is being planned by the Cherokee National Historical Society through the Cherokee Heritage Center, which is independent of the Cherokee Nation.

The After the Trail exhibit is being sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Duane King, a Cherokee language expert and director of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, said the eastern Cherokees in North Carolina have a post- Trail of Tears exhibit which has developed into an annual tourist attraction.

King has served as curator at the Cherokee Museum in North Carolina as well as the Cherokee Heritage Center.

Officials at the Cherokee Heritage Center said they hope to open their exhibit on May 12.

In the 1830s, Cherokees and other members of the Five Civilized Tribes were forced at Army gunpoint across the Trail of Tears from their homelands in the Southeast to what is now Oklahoma.

In the Golden Age, Strickland noted, the Cherokees were pulled into the Civil War, and in 1898 the federal government thought it had closed down the Cherokee Nation.

The tribal lands were put up for allotment in the early 1900s and the president appointed the chief of the Cherokees from 1906 until 1970, the author and- or editor of 35 books said.

"The tribe in many respects goes underground, but re-creates itself, literally. As you know, the Phoenix is the symbol for the Cherokees. It was the title of their original newspaper."

The tribe kept re-creating itself, Strickland said, "until this time when you have an immensely successful tribe that is providing social services, its own leadership, a new kind of education."

Rob Martindale, World senior writer, can be reached at 581-8367 or via e-mail at rob.martindale@tulsaworld.com.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


43 Date: 2001-02-14 18:49:41
Dutch (oldman_dutch@yahoo.com / no homepage) wrote:

I am a new Reporter/Investigator for the Advocate,so please bear with me till I get the hang of this.Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

HEADQUARTERS RELOCATION: Tribes to aid BIA eastern offices move
Two groups with major gaming interests to finance relocation from D.C. to Nashville

By TONY BATT
lasvegas.com GAMING WIRE



WASHINGTON -- Two tribes with substantial gaming interests plan to pay between $1.2 million and $1.4 million to finance the move of the eastern regional headquarters of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from suburban Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tenn.

The office would be located in a building partially owned by the United South and Eastern Tribes, or USET, a group of 24 tribes including the two that would pay for the move -- the Mohegans of Connecticut and the Oneidas of New York.

The building also houses USET's headquarters as well as a regional office for Indian Health Service, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

As the move is being planned, the USET's executive director, Tim Martin, is being considered for the position of assistant secretary of Indian affairs in the Bush administration, a position through which he would head the BIA.

BIA and USET officials confirmed the potential move, which could come this spring. They said it would be easier to hire staff in low-cost Nashville and would put the BIA regional office closer to more tribes.

The proposal came as a surprise to members of the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the BIA budget, a spokeswoman said.

"The House Resources Committee didn't know about (the move). We wish we had," said Marnie Funk, who learned of the plan last week when contacted by a reporter. "The authorizing committee should have a heads up on these kinds of expenditures, and we're looking into it."

BIA spokeswoman Nedra Darling said letters of notification have been sent to the House and Senate Appropriations committees.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs can issue a final decision on a move, although Congress has oversight through the budgetary process.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a member of both the Senate Indian Affairs and Appropriations committees, called the arrangement "a terrible conflict of interest.

"To have the regulators of a gaming operation in the same building as gaming operators would be like the Nevada Gaming Commission setting up shop in Caesars Palace," Reid said.

BIA Deputy Commissioner Sharon Blackwell said there is no conflict. She said the Nashville office might perform environmental and realty research on tribal applications to take land into trust for gaming purposes, but final decisions on the applications will be made in Washington by the assistant secretary for Indian affairs.

"This move really has nothing to do with influencing policy," Blackwell said.

Blackwell said the move will not cost less than $1.2 million, and "I am determined to keep it within $1.4 million and $1.5 million." She said she hopes the move begins by April and will be completed by July 1.

Blackwell said it is common for federal Indian agencies to locate their regional offices in buildings and on land owned by tribes. She said this saves taxpayers money and provides better service for tribes.

The USET's Martin confirmed Monday he has submitted papers to the Bush administration and is being seriously considered for the post of assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Department of Interior.

Martin, 41, said he would resign his job of five years with USET if he is named assistant secretary, and insisted he could maintain objectivity when considering issues affecting the organization.

"If there is a perception or any doubt about my objectivity (on issues affecting USET), I would recuse myself from dealing with those issues," said Martin, a member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Alabama.

Two of USET's most prosperous members -- the Mohegans, owners of the 176,000 square-foot Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn., and the Oneidas, owners of the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, N.Y. -- have offered to pay for the BIA move by returning annual payments they receive from Congress as federally recognized tribes.

Martin said both tribes previously have returned federal money for other purposes.

Darling, the BIA spokeswoman, said she was not aware of the arrangement with the Mohegans and Oneidas. "We haven't used any money at this point," she said.




42 Date: 2001-02-12 21:21:17
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

PESHAWBESTOWN, Mich. (AP) -- The dancers enter the grounds from the east, symbol of the rising sun. They move in a circle to pounding drumbeats and piercing song, clad in colorful regalia with lace, feathers and beads.

This is a powwow, an American Indian social gathering that has become increasingly popular with the resurgence of native culture in recent decades. More than 50 are held in Michigan each year, with many more in neighboring Great Lakes states and nationwide.

Powwows by that name are a relatively modern phenomenon, but draw upon ancient traditions of tribal get-togethers that featured dance, music, storytelling and ceremonies.

"It's a community celebration, but also a way to express cultural values," said Ted Holappa, a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. He is a master of ceremonies at the Mid-Winter Reunion Powwow taking place this weekend in Escanaba.

Chris Bussey, member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and longtime powwow dancer, says the gatherings have social and religious significance.

The focal points are the dances, which are brimming with spiritual symbolism, such as the constant drumbeats that represent the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

But the powwow also is something of an extended family reunion, with food and fellowship.

"Indians are fun people," Bussey said. "We like to gather, we like our kids to be around each other, we like to laugh together."

Bussey, 34, went to powwows with his family during his early childhood in Grand Rapids. He moved to the Grand Traverse Band reservation in Peshawbestown, just north of Suttons Bay, at age 13 and joined a drum team.

Later, he and a few pals hit the "powwow trail," hitching rides to weekend gatherings around the state in summer.

A traditional dancer, his regalia features a headpiece with porcupine and deer hair and a "bustle," or circular assemblage of eagle feathers mounted on a board to simulate spread wings. Native spirituality regards the eagle as sacred, a messenger that carries prayers to the Creator.

Traditional dancers often convey stories through their movements, re-enacting an event in their lives or a custom such as stalking an animal in the forest.

"When I was first starting the traditional dance I asked some of the old-timers for advice," said Bussey, a financial consultant in Traverse City. "They all said pretty much the same thing: Let your feet move where your heart tells you to move. Dance from your heart. That's why everyone's dance is different; there's no set dance."

There are two types of powwows: "contest" and "traditional." Contest powwows include competitions and prizes for winners.

While all powwows have unique features, each generally begins with a "grand entry," in which dancers circle the area in a symbol of the circle of life. Military veterans lead the way, carrying the flags of the United States and various Indian nations.

An elder offers an invocation, followed by a dance in honor of veterans.

Then come the flowing "grass dance," which originated in the Western plains; the vigorous, athletic "fancy dance" for men and "shawl dance" for women; and men's and women's traditional dances.

There's also the "jingle dress dance," a recently revived style inspired by a young Ojibwa woman's dream. The dresses are adorned with 365 metal cones, representing a prayer for each day of the year.

The master of ceremonies sometimes announces an "intertribal," in which spectators can participate.

Some powwows feature art and craft exhibitions and traditional foods -- meat, berries and the popular "fry bread," a kind of deep-fried biscuit.

While enhancing tribal ties and culture, powwows also help lower racial barriers, giving whites a chance to meet natives and observe their traditions.

The Mid-Winter Powwow in Escanaba began in the late 1970s, when tensions over Indian fishing rights were running high in the area. From the beginning, the public has been invited.

"We noticed that people could more easily talk and get acquainted when there were things like singing and crafts to bring them together," said Loren Woerpel, one of the organizers.

The nearby Hannahville Indian Community and Bay de Noc Community College are among sponsors of the powwow, held at the U.P. State Fairgrounds.

"The powwow is a great tool for non-Indians to catch a glimpse of how Native Americans really are," Bussey said.

"They're not the stereotypical boozing Indian on the street corner, they're not just a blackjack dealer. They're a society, with good and bad like every community, but with love and respect for ... other men and women."



41 Date: 2001-02-12 21:19:13
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Blackfeet plan Montana's first wind-powered utility plant

As Californians grope blindly through the darkness of energy deregulation,
their economy stumbling through rolling blackouts, skyrocketing electric
bills and stopgap bailout measures for their cash-strapped utilities,
Montanans watch anxiously to see how this bodes for their own plunge into
deregulation.
But while some leaders in Helena are calling for a hasty retreat to the
fossil fuel quick fixes of the past, tribal council members with the
Blackfeet Nation are moving swiftly into the future with a clean, affordable
and abundant energy source in their own backyard-wind.
The project, known as Blackfeet WindPower One, will be the first
multi-megawatt wind generating facility in Montana and the first
utility-scale wind farm on tribal land anywhere in the country. The project
is a joint effort of the tribally owned Siyeh Development Corporation,
Montana Power Company (MPC) and SeaWest WindPower of San Diego.
When the project is completed by the fall of 2002, the Blackfeet wind farm
outside of Browning will encompass about 40 acres with 38 wind turbines that
are capable of generating 22 megawatts of electricity, enough energy to
power more than 5,000 homes. Construction is expected to begin in the spring
of next year.
"For the tribe's part, financially it's a great opportunity for us to dive
into this wind energy because of the power shortage," says Leo Kennerly,
tribal council member for the Blackfeet Nation. "And we have plenty of wind
to go around."
According to Dave Ryan, senior distribution engineer with MPC, the Blackfeet
Windpower One will generate electricity at a wholesale cost of about 2.9
cents per kilowatt-hour, making it cost-competitive with MPC's other sources
of electricity generation in Montana, notably, coal-fired power plants and
hydroelectric dams.
"[Wind power] is still a tough sell," admits Ryan, about the challenges that
have faced wind energy development elsewhere in Montana. "You have to have
three things: you have to have wind, you have to have transmission, and you
have to have a customer."
But the Blackfeet wind farm will be located close to existing transmission
lines, reducing the need to construct new ones, says Dennis Fitzpatrick of
Siyeh Development Corporation, a tribal corporation formed by the Blackfeet
Nation to manage its economic enterprises. Finding customers will not be a
problem either, since MPC has agreed to accept three megawatts of
electricity from the Blackfeet facility, with the remainder to be sold to
the Washington-based Bonneville Power Administration.
As for the abundance of wind, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation has more than
its share. Ryan says that of the three locations are currently under
consideration-an Environmental Impact Statement is being prepared for
each-any one would be capable of driving the 600 kilowatt turbines about 40
percent of the time, putting them at the upper end of the wind-reliability
scale. Already, five other wind turbines are in operation on the Blackfeet
Reservation, four of which provide electricity to the Browning's waste
treatment facility.
What's surprising about the Blackfeet WindPower One is that it represents
Montana's only large-scale foray into the wind energy revolution already
sweeping the Northwest. Most of Montana's neighbors have since recognized
the environmental and economic benefits of wind power. Currently, the world'
s largest wind farm-the Stateline Wind Generating Project-is under
construction near Walla Walla, Wash. When completed, that project will
include 450 windmills capable of generating 300 megawatts of power, enough
energy for 70,000 homes.
But experts say that Montana's wind potential is even greater. The American
Wind Energy Association ranks Montana fifth in the nation for possible wind
energy generation, with the potential to generate an estimated 1 trillion
kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. Patrick Mazza, author of a report on
alternative energy entitled, "Accelerating the Green Energy Revolution,"
calls Montana "a Saudi Arabia of the breeze [that] could reliably supply
116,000 megawatts, 15 percent of U.S. electrical demand." Still, as of April
2000, wind power provided less than 0.5 percent of MPC's current energy
supply.
In the past, wind generation developers in Montana faced an additional
obstacle: Its harsh winters were notoriously punishing on wind turbines.
However, recent advances in turbine technology have minimized that problem.
SeaWest WindPower has developed more than 85 megawatts of utility-scale wind
projects in the Foote Rim Creek area of Wyoming, as well as nearly 500
megawatts of wind project in California, the United Kingdom and Spain.
Blackfeet WindPower One also offers the Blackfeet Nation an opportunity to
create new jobs in a region that has long suffered double-digit
unemployment. According to Kennerly, a number of temporary and permanent
jobs will be created by the wind farm, both in the construction process and
for the ongoing maintenance of the turbines.
"We see the opportunity to make some income plus create some jobs that are
well-needed here." Says Kennerly. "That's why most of the council feels that
now is the time to do it."
As with the development of any natural resource, wind farms are not without
their environmental impacts, notably on raptors and other migratory birds.
But according to the Blackfeet's Ervin Barlson, that will be insignificant
compared to the numerous environmental impacts of fossil fuel generation.
Blackfeet WindPower One is being funded in part with a $1.5 million subsidy
from MPC's Universal System Benefits Charge, a fee tacked onto the bills of
all Montana ratepayers to fund renewable energy projects, energy
conservation and low-income billing assistance."



40 Date: 2001-02-12 21:16:59
Advocate Reporter (no email / no homepage) wrote:

TULSA, Okla. - The death of an elderly tribesman has complicated efforts to save the dying Euchee Indian language and record the tribe's fading history.

Last month, 82-year-old Mose Cahwee died. Mr. Cahwee had provided volumes on Euchee history on hundreds of families that once lived near Bristow, Sapulpa and Liberty Mounds, near Tulsa.

"Mose was very active in the language and culture," said University of Tulsa anthropology professor Richard Grounds, himself an Euchee descendant. "He was kind of a walking encyclopedia. He knew the history and Euchee medicine plants."

Now, only about five Euchee speakers are left, Dr. Grounds said. That is out of about 2,400 people who say they are Euchee descendants.

Dr. Grounds is working on the Euchee Language Preservation Project, which is sponsored by a $297,300 federal grant.

The three-year grant has enabled Dr. Grounds and Euchee speakers to gather weekly at the Sapulpa Indian Community Center to record the language and history. Dr. Grounds isn't fluent in the language, but he's learning.

Euchee is sometimes spelled Yuchi. The tribe originated in Alabama and Georgia, but their language was different from neighboring tribes.

The Euchee population shrank in northeast Oklahoma over the years, and use of the language dwindled as well. Dr. Grounds said the language is not dead, although it is close to extinction.

Remembering the language isn't easy for native speakers.

Euchee elder Maggie Cumsey Marsey, 82, squints one eye, cocks her head and stares into space as she tries to remember the Euchee word for corn soup. She hasn't spoken the word in decades.

Sometimes she recalls a Creek word instead because Creeks and Euchees often intermarried and learned parts of each other's language. Ms. Marsey said she was discouraged from speaking her native tongue when she attended Lone Star school in the 1930s.

"I can speak it, but I struggle sometimes because I haven't said some of these words in 30 or 40 years," she said.

Dr. Grounds said he hopes the project helps develop a curriculum, based on phonetics in the absence of a native alphabet, to teach Euchee to future generations.

Dr. Grounds and project assistants Wanda A. Greene and Linda Littlebear Harjo are also working with elders to create new Euchee words to keep the language current. The new words would be for bicycle, telephone and computer.

The preservation project is to be completed in 2003, Dr. Grounds said. The work and artifacts are to be housed at the University of Tulsa.
(c) 2001 The Dallas Morning News


39 Date: 2001-02-10 15:37:43
Advocate Investigator (no email / no homepage) wrote:

Prison policy on religious items declared unconstitutional
By LARRY O'DELL

Associated Press Writer

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Virginia prison officials cannot deny an inmate access
to items used in American Indian religious ceremonies simply because he is
not a member of that race, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a
policy allowing only inmates of American Indian heritage to possess the items
violates the Constitution's equal protection clause.

Gary Davidson Morrison Jr., a Greensville Correctional Center inmate,
challenged the policy. Morrison is not of American Indian descent and is not
a member of a specific tribal religion, but he practices what he calls
"Native American Spirituality."

Among the items he claimed he needed for his religious ceremonies were animal
parts and hides, sacred herbs, shells, smoking pipes, feathers and beads.

Morrison was denied the items because of a prison policy that says "requests
for acquiring or maintaining existing articles of Native American faith will
only be considered for those inmates who are bona fide Native Americans."

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne declared the policy unconstitutional, and
the appeals court upheld the ruling.

"The court's decision adhered to both the law and common sense in recognizing
that the prison's policy discriminated on the basis of race and that such
discrimination is unconstitutional," said Rebecca Kim Glenberg, an American
Civil Liberties Union lawyer who represented Morrison.

Attorney General Mark Earley's office is reviewing the decision and has not
decided whether to appeal, spokesman David Botkins said.

Prison officials adopted the strict policy for allowing use of the materials
because of security risks. For example, hides can be used to conceal
contraband and shells can be sharpened into weapons.

However, the appeals court said the state failed to demonstrate that the
items are any more dangerous in the hands of non-Indians than they are in the
possession of inmates of American Indian descent.

In its ruling, the court stopped short of ordering the prison to let Morrison
have the items.

However, "it is patently impermissible to control the number of dangerous
items by instituting a policy which arbitrarily makes race or heritage the
threshold requirement for according an individual inmate the privilege of
obtaining them," the court said.

Jimmy Boy Dial
Editor, The Spike
www.thespike.com
=========================
U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals
MORRISON v ANGELONE
PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=case&no=00654

0P

"Defendants be enjoined from prohibiting Morrison from obtaining herbs and
other
religious items based solely upon his lack of membership in the Native
American
race." J.A. 264. The dis- trict court agreed in large part with the
magistrate judge's
report and recommendation, ultimately concluding that Morrison had
established an
equal protection violation and entering a narrow injunction prohib- iting
defendants
"from refusing Morrison a religious exemption from the existing property
restrictions,
available to other inmates, solely on the basis of his lack of membership in
the
Native American race." J.A. 300. Taking care to point out that this was not
tantamount to ordering defendants to allow Morrison to obtain the requested
prop-
erty, the district court emphasized that it was"simply enjoin[ing] the
Defendants
from using race as the only factor in their initial determi- nation of
whether Morrison
is entitled to a religious exemption from the existing personal property
restrictions."
J.A. 300-01. Defendants Garraghty and Millard now appeal.
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-6
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.